To Find the Sun
by Beckon
Summary: Jade had gotten so used to sleeping with him next to her that it felt odd to realize that she had been alone this whole time now. It seemed like such a small thing, but she knew him; she knew him better than most people did. And something like this was not something he would do, as small of an inconvenience as it might've seemed.


Jade didn't know why she woke up, or if something had woken her up.

She just found herself awake, lying in the quiet stillness of her room.

And even now, three years late, she was still surprised at how quiet Edenia was at night compared to Outworld.

It used to be that whenever she found herself lying awake at night, she would always find it difficult to get back to sleep amongst the chorus of singing insects, of heavy-heeled night guards- of the night beasts bellowing from the marketplace. And despite Outworld being the only home she knew of, even then something about it had always felt off. There was always this thought in the back of her head that said she didn't really belong there, that that was why she would wake up in the dead of night with this feeling of anxiety.

She always marked it off as nightly insomnia, of having eaten something bad the day before that was giving her fever dreams now.

But here, lying awake in the still night of Edenia, Jade realized she had been right.

Being here, even awake at such a dead hour, felt right.

This was what a real home felt like.

Closing her eyes, Jade blindly reached out to her left, searching the sheets for her still-slumbering bedmate.

It seemed so unfair that she would find herself waking up consistently throughout the night while Kung Lao could sleep soundly for hours without so much as stirring. She marked it up as the difference between Outworld and Earthrealm, the difference between being a royal guard and a realm Champion.

But the trade-off was that she could curl up against him at any time of night without having to worry if she would wake him up as well.

And even asleep, Kung Lao would easily adjust himself to better fit against her, to give her the close contact that she wanted.

Instead of warm skin, however, she felt wrinkled sheets; she felt the dip in the mattress from where he had once been sleeping.

Pushing herself up, Jade looked over to the empty bed-space, confirming his absence and noting that the sheets felt cold underneath her fingers.

Kung Lao wasn't one to get up and leave during the night- not for a long period of time anyways, not long enough for the sheets to go cold. It was usually just for a quick trip to the bathroom, or a quick walk to work out a cramp. He used to joke that if the worst thing post-Revenancy was just frequently occurring leg cramps than he was one of the lucky ones.

A subtle joke on a far deeper issue, but they all had their ways with coping.

Jade had gotten so used to sleeping with him next to her though that now it felt odd to realize that she had been alone this whole time now.

It seemed like such a small thing, but she knew him; she knew him better than most people did.

And something like this was not something he would do, as small of an inconvenience as it might've seemed.

It didn't matter though.

She wasn't going back to sleep any time soon anyways.

Jade cursed the size of her bed as she pulled herself to the edge of the mattress and slowly worked her legs over it, settling her feet on the cool wooden floor underneath. It felt like she had exhausted herself enough just doing that much; then again, she had been getting tired more and more easily these days. And the subtle throbbing that began to knock against the back of her skull only served to remind her of that.

Grabbing her robe from the nearby chair, she slipped it on and loosely tied it around her as she made her way across the fairly massive bedroom.

It was far too large to be practical- and much larger than the room she once had in the Outworld palace, which said enough.

But apparently a lot of things in Edenia were sized larger than necessary.

Her bed, for instance, was almost twice the width of her former bed.

She could sleep on one side and Kung Lao could sleep on the other, and there was still enough space for three people in the middle- all without them touching one another.

She wouldn't complain though, even though she had already.

Such a simplistic room still made her feel like royalty.

Stepping out into the corridor outside, Jade started through the palace- forgoing her bed shoes as she didn't want to go back to fetch them after realizing that she had forgotten them.

Three years past and it still felt odd for her to be here, to be in Edenia.

After decades spent in the Netherrealm, it felt like she would never be human again- and then she was.

And then strings were pulled with Outworld, pulled with the crowned Mileena Kahnum, now standing in Shao Kahn's place having survived the bloodshed of the Tournament, and suddenly Edenian was back as well.

And now she was here, back in the home realm she never knew she had been missing from.

Edenia was peaceful.

It was healing.

It was a realm left untouched and undisturbed for thousands of centuries, allowing it's energy and magic to become concentrated from within the orb it had been imprisoned in. And now that it was free, that concentrated magic released itself, powering the realm once more- bringing it back to its former glory with little need for outside intervention.

And it was that untouched magic that embraced her, healing her from her past of being a Revenant.

It had healed her, Kitana, and the re-crowned Queen Sindel, as well as the other Revenants.

It had taken the burden from their shoulders and had destroyed it.

Moving down the long corridor, Jade looked out of the massive windows that encompassed her on both sides, looking out across the open courtyards that laid beneath her. She looked out to where the dual moons were hanging in the clear night sky, one just behind the other.

It was far prettier than the red moon that hung in the Outworld skies.

Heading down to the ground floor of the palace, Jade checked the open lounge at the front, and then the second lounge towards the back; each were empty and void of the presence she was looking for. She checked all of the rooms that she knew Kung Lao liked to hang out in- including the indoor pool, which was calmly still, as it should've been but not how she had hoped to find it.

There was this constant nagging feeling that convinced her to check outside, to roam the open courtyards- free of danger, free of threat.

[A leftover gut reaction to when she had to care for Kitana.]

It was out front, out towards the open yard of the palace that Jade found the object of her search.

And she felt a rush of relief come over her at the sight of him.

Kung Lao was in one of the wading pools, which were supposed to just be for decoration- a sort of wishing pool of a kind, where people could throw small trinkets into the water. Each decorative beam at the front of the palace had one of the small pools around them, which only pushed the regal appearance that Edenia had no matter where one went in the realm.

Whether or not the pools were functional didn't seem to matter to the man, he seemed perfectly content sitting in the chest-deep water.

Although perhaps perfectly content wasn't the right phrase to use.

Even from the cutting distance, Jade could see that rather empty expression on his face; a look of complete void.

It almost looked like he was in a daze, or perhaps maybe a trance- which wasn't unlike him to do, although the timing of it was odd. Then again, it was odd for him to be out here alone at this time of night instead of being with her, warm and cuddled up in bed; which was something he never passed up the opportunity to do.

As Jade drew closer, she felt a knot forming in her stomach at his lack of response, his lack of attention.

But before she had a chance to call out to him, she watched as Kung Lao seemed to snap out of whatever had a hold on him- and she watched as he finally looked up at her approach, as if guided by a sixth sense to her presence.

His expression remained void at first, and then furrowed by a look of confusion before he seemed to recognize her.

And Jade watched as he cracked a smile at her, before he lifted an arm out of the water and moved it to sit on the edge of the wall behind him.

"What are you doing out this late?" Kung Lao spoke, as he turned himself towards her.

And she wondered if he even heard himself ask that question.

"I came out looking for you," Jade answered, treading lightly given the odd circumstances. Her gut instinct was telling her that something more was going on here, and it had yet to prove her wrong. "What are you doing? It's a little late for a midnight swim, don't you think? And this isn't one of the pools anyways."

"I got a cramp in my back and tried to walk it out," he started. "And then I got hot while I was walking around, and there was water right here- and you know I can't resist it."

That much she knew was true.

If there was one thing Jade had learned about the monk, it was his odd affinity for water- which she dressed up as his need to be cooled off given his hot-blooded nature; the man was always hot, regardless of where they went. And given the numerous waterfalls around Edenia, the natural pools of water, it seemed like he was perfectly suited for the realm.

Not that Kung Lao would ever stay here permanently, but Jade had managed to convince him to stick around for longer and longer periods of time, which to be fair, he had yet to complain about. She knew he loved it here in Edenia, but his heart would always be with Earthrealm, and she would never try to come between that.

The only drawback to having him around more and more often was that she found herself getting thrown into pools more often as well.

The amount of times she had been thrown in before was zero.

And now it was roughly four or five times a week, given however long he was staying with her.

A mild inconvenience, but the trade off was fair.

Kneeling down by the water side, Jade looked him over- and noticed that he looked tired, which was something he almost never looked. But there was no denying the dark rings under his eyes, the odd hollow look to them as well; it was keeping his eyes from reflecting what otherwise would've been his usually happy appearance. And even then, his smile wasn't nearly as charismatic as it usually was, as it should've been.

It was enough to confirm that the knot in her stomach had a reason for being there.

"What's going on?" Jade questioned.

"A lot."

She didn't anticipate him to answer, let alone answer so quickly.

But two words were all it took to erase any and all traces of masked happiness from his face, leaving behind a hollowed, solemn look that matched his eyes.

"Do you want to talk about it?" she continued, trying to ease the conversation out of him.

"It's going to sound stupid," Kung Lao replied.

"If you're out here this late, in a pool instead of with me, it can't be stupid," she assured, as she moved to sit next to him now. "You're not an easy person to wake up, so if something was able to at this time of night, it must've been something stronger than me."

A little bit of humor to lighten the mood, which was something she knew he would do in her place.

Unfortunately, she didn't get the same results like he would've.

Jade could see the look of contemplation on his face and couldn't help but to wonder just what it was that was plaguing him, what it was that was making it difficult for him to open up to her.

He usually always had something to say and had very little filter when he said it.

It was usually more work for her to get him to be quiet.

And considering how open they were with talking about their Revenant past, which alone was something they had struggled with for so long, she couldn't fathom what would actually be making him clam up.

When he gave a hard sigh and turned to look back forward, she knew it wasn't going to be good.

"Let me preface this whole thing by just saying... I don't know," Kung Lao finally started, and sounding like he was already fighting the words. "I don't know when this whole thing started, I only noticed it after the whole Revenant thing was over with- and I don't know why it's happening. I don't know how spirits or souls work, not outside of written scripts or anything I've witnessed before, but... I think I have my ancestor's spirit. And I don't mean that in a figurative way. I mean, I have memories that aren't mine and sometimes there's these experiences and emotions that I know aren't mine either."

There was a pause, a look of genuine exhaustion.

"I have memories from the first Tournament, that excitement, that feeling of pride and relief," he continued. "But I also have memories of the second Tournament, the dread, the fear- I can see and feel myself dying. And sometimes when I sleep, I see these memories play out in front of me, like I'm seeing them through my own eyes. At the beginning, they were just interesting to watch; it was surreal and I can't really explain it beyond that, but it's like realizing there was a life before this one. But... you know, his soul was imprisoned and tortured for five hundred years, and I get those memories too."

Jade felt her stomach sink at the words.

At the curl of his fingers as they knitted into a trembling fist.

"And it's- it's this screaming, this constant feeling of fear, of pain and agony- and sometimes when I wake up, the screaming doesn't stop."

She didn't think anything could have prepared her for that answer.

For that odd reality of a world that he was going through.

Part of her wanted to ask why he didn't share this with her before, but Jade thought better of it.

Now wasn't the time to be asking for answers to a problem that wasn't affecting her, not in the way that it was affecting him.

"... Are you okay?" Jade asked, in lack of better preparation.

What was she supposed to say? To ask?

He said he had only noticed it after the Revenant ordeal, as though he hadn't suffered enough with that alone.

"I think so- mostly anyways," Kung Lao replied, although he didn't sound confident in the answer. "It doesn't happen often, just kind of in spurts, not enough for me to justify it as a problem just yet anyways. I mean, I can't pretend that it doesn't happen either, but... I'm still trying to figure out what exactly is happening, what exactly is wrong with me."

Jade hesitated before she moved a hand to cover his.

She couldn't coax his fingers out, but she still kept her own curled around his fist.

"Have you spoken to Raiden about this?" she questioned, trying to broach the topic carefully.

"No, not yet at least," Kung Lao remarked, seemingly open to answering her. "I wouldn't even know how to start that conversation. And Raiden, he's- he's not exactly in a position to be approached either. He's busy enough as it is and I... still don't feel comfortable being in the same room as him. And broaching a topic like this, I don't think I could handle it, not with him."

She couldn't fault him for how he still felt towards the Thunder God.

It made his situation a little more difficult, but he was willing to admit that he couldn't do it.

It let her know not to push the topic.

"Fujin might know something," he continued, oddly enough offering a solution on his own- and looking as though the thought had just come to him. "He's under a lot of stress too, but he's always been open to listening- and he's been wanting me to drop by anyways."

A subtle improvement.

"What about your family? Have you tried speaking to them about?" Jade queried.

After all, this seemed like an issue they would need to be involved in.

Although they would probably have their hands tied as much as his were.

As soon as the question left her, Jade felt his hand tense underneath her own before he pulled it away.

"What is it?"

"It's- a long story," Kung Lao started.

"We're not exactly pressed for time out here," she reminded.

There was a small pocket of silence soon punctured by a hard exhale as he slipped a little deeper into the water, bringing it up to his shoulders now. He didn't respond immediately to her question, nor did he look at her again, not for awhile anyways.

And it was only when he hesitantly moved a hand to take one of her own did she feel somewhat settled.

"Jade, I- I'm just going to make this short," he finally spoke again. "There is no family to talk to."

"What do you mean?"

"I was a Revenant for twenty-five years, working for Quan Chi in the Netherrealm, do you think they were just going to welcome me back with open arms?" Kung Lao questioned, running his thumb across the back of her knuckles as he spoke. "... I mean, I did too, but they made a good argument and I couldn't defend myself against it."

Jade felt her heart sink this time.

"You mean, they just-" she started.

"Yeah," he interrupted, clearly not wanting to hear the words again. "I agreed and we went our separate ways."

"We didn't ask for that, we couldn't control what happened to us," Jade reminded.

"I know and it's taken me a long time to finally see that," Kung Lao agreed. "Which is why I agreed to leave. It wasn't easy, believe me, but... I couldn't get dragged down into that mindset again; I didn't want to get stuck in that endless cycle of blaming myself, of asking why I wasn't strong enough to fight back, to leave."

The thing that made this whole situation hard to swallow was that he almost had.

Kung Lao had almost broken the curse Quan Chi had put on them; he had almost freed himself from the hivemind, from the brainwashing. It was a feat Jade still didn't understand, considering that she had been in the exact same place he had and hadn't so much as had a single conscious thought of her own. Out of all of them who had been taken to the Netherrealm after the Tournament, how was it that he was the one who fought back the most? The one who almost got out?

The one that the rest of them had to stop.

Jade watched as he sank further down into the water once more, allowing it to come up to his neck now.

"It's not all bad, I don't think," Kung Lao started, perhaps in an attempt to do damage control. "I mean, the familial pressure is gone, which admittedly is kind of nice. Except now I have my dead ancestor in my head, so I guess that's just something I can't escape from."

A self-made kickback, one that seemed to overturn what little silver lining he had had to grasp onto in the situation.

She found herself at a loss for words.

She never really had a family herself, no one outside of Kitana- and now Queen Sindel. But even then, in Outworld, it had always been driven that she was just the royal bodyguard, not a Princess; she never belonged inside of the ruling family. It was a reality she was born into, that she grew up in, and while resentment had started to grow later on in her life, she had long since accepted that there was little she could do about it.

As far as she was considered, as long as Kitana accepted her, she cared for no one else.

So she didn't know what it was like to be betrayed like that, to be back-stabbed by the people you should've trusted the most.

Everything about him revolved around his family, it always had.

Even down to his name, down to the legacy he carried.

The one that had forced him into the Tournament to begin with, leading him to his death.

"I still have Kung Jin though, so it's not a complete lost," Kung Lao offered once more. "I mean, I'm still getting to know him, but he seems like a good kid."

A continued desperate bid for some form of optimism.

"He kind of reminds me of me when I was that age- except, you know, not dead. Wow, that's a train of thought I wish I hadn't connected to."

And it was gone.

Pulling her hand free from his, Jade pushed herself up and brushed herself off- feeling him switch his attention back to her at the sudden movement. She pulled her robe off and let it crumple to the ground before she walked behind him and stepped down into the same wading pool. The water was still lukewarm from being under the Edenian sun all day, and she felt it slowly envelope her body until she was seated at the bottom; the water just barely came up over her breasts when she settled in.

"You're right, it is nice in here," Jade mused.

"Told you."

She gently nudged him, forcing him to move enough for her to slip her arm behind him, allowing him to rest his head in the bend of her elbow. She let her hand rest against his chest, tracing circles with her fingertips, before she pulled him in against her.

"So now what?" Jade started, unsure of where else to go.

She wanted to let him keep talking, to keep unloading whatever was on his mind.

Given his muted reactions, she was under the impression he had been dealing with these issues a lot longer than he was letting on- allowing himself to come to terms with them first before letting it slowly trickle out. But given the situation, she was almost convinced that had she not woken up and noticed his absence, he wouldn't have opened up to her like this.

Eventually, he would have; she was certain about that much.

But maybe he was holding out for a better time, for a better situation.

"I don't know," Kung Lao replied. "Probably stay out here for another hour and then go back to bed."

Already, the topic was closed.

"Well, if you're going to go back to my bed than you need to take a shower beforehand," she reminded.

He chuckled at her remark before he moved a hand to take her own once more.

And for a moment, it was just the two of them sitting in silence with one another, with the occasional squeeze of fingers between them.

"Do you think it'll be weird?" Kung Lao started, the first to break the stillness between them. "I mean, if this thing between us lasts, you're going to watch me grow old and die."

And a helluva way to break it.

Jade gave a quiet sigh and leaned against him. "It's been a thought," she admitted. "I try not to think about it too much."

"I've been thinking about it," he remarked. "I still don't know how to feel about it, but... I guess in the end, I wouldn't have to worry about it."

"Lucky you," Jade mused, squeezing his hand with hers before she moved them to tuck under his chin. Pushing his head back against her, she leaned down and brushed her lips against his forehead; she supposed she was trying to soften the cruel conversation through physical affections. "Would it make you feel better if I told you that you wouldn't be the first I had seen grow old and die?"

"A little bit," Kung Lao replied, before he pulled away from her- although just barely. "I didn't mean to get morbid about it, it's just... it's been a thought that I can't seem to shake lately."

Given everything else he had been going through, she wasn't surprised that his mind was hooking onto every negative thought that it could.

It was stuck in a cycle.

"You've been visiting a lot lately- not that I'm complaining," she reminded, pausing to broach the topic as carefully as she could. "Is that because of everything that's been going on with you?"

"Yeah," he admitted- quickly at that. "It's easier to come to terms with it when I can separate myself from it- and what better separation than being in an entirely different realm?" He seemed to pause for a moment himself before coming to his own realization. "Not that I don't also come here to visit you, of course. Everything else is just like an added bonus."

Jade chuckled at his quick attempt to recover.

"I'll take your word for it."

"There's just not a lot to do in Earthrealm," Kung Lao continued. "I mean, outside of just like... the usual stuff I do, which isn't really much to begin with. There's more privacy here too; it's quieter and more relaxing, which makes it easier to meditate- and I don't have people just coming by to ask me things."

He was never one to turn down a conversation.

Which lead her to think that there was more to it with him being bothered by people asking him questions.

"Edenia has more pools," Jade added.

"Edenia does have more pools," he repeated, "- and no one gets mad when I jump in them."

"The Grotti isn't a pool," she reminded.

"Oh, don't listen to their lies about that."

She chuckled once more before she pulled him back and kissed him on the forehead again, squeezing his hand in her hold. She brought her other hand to his chest, before she pulled him in, moving to rest her cheek against his head now.

"You alright?" Kung Lao questioned, sounding a little hesitant himself to do so. "Seems like you have something on your mind too."

"I have a lot on my mind right now," Jade admitted, "- you've given me a lot to think about."

If she wasn't already holding on to him, she was pretty certain he would've sunk further down into the water.

"Yeah, sorry about that-"

"Come on, if we want us to work out then we need to be open with each other," she assured, feeling a little hypocritical herself with the words. "I'm glad you opened up to me, I know this couldn't have been easy for you to talk about- especially with me, but you did."

She paused momentarily, thinking their current situation over, as well as her own words.

Kung Lao didn't want to be coddled, she knew that; he just wanted to air out his grievances, even if the timing for them wasn't perfect. Sometimes all he wanted was to just be listened to, without advice given- which was something she was still trying to learn to do, admittedly. She was so used to dealing with Kitana, listening to the woman's concerns and troubles, that advice felt necessary for her to give- especially when a situation was out of her control.

"In the long-short of it, I got off fairly easy after the whole Revenant ordeal," Jade finally spoke again. "I didn't have a family; the only people I had considered family were Revenants alongside me. We all shared in that experience, so I don't feel like an outcast with it. We also got Edenia back almost immediately afterwards, so I got to physically remove myself from any evidence that says I was even Revenant to begin with. And given I'm a couple thousand years old, twenty-five years spent in the Netherrealm isn't exactly a long time to me. Not to downplay the whole thing, but... I guess in terms of memories and such, the good outweigh the bad by a long shot."

Twenty-five years to her was nothing.

But he had spent more of his life as a Revenant than he had as human.

It was a quarter of his life already gone.

"The whole Sindel thing doesn't bother you?" Kung Lao asked.

"Sometimes, from time to time," she answered. "I'm still getting to know who Sindel is to begin with- and she's nothing like the person she was before. In my mind, it feels easy to separate them, to see the Sindel who killed me before as a completely different person to the Sindel now. It wasn't easy to begin with, I assure you; it took me a year before I could even bring myself to be in the same room as her. But that fear is beyond me now. It feels like I'm at this happy medium; I feel like I'm stronger than I was before. And because of that, it feels like the least I can do is offer what support I can to anyone else- including you."

He didn't respond, not immediately anyways.

But when she looked down at him after awhile, she noticed that he had his eyes closed.

For a few long moments, it was just the two of them in silence.

Giving them both a moment of contemplation, of reflection.

Giving her yet another chance to speak, to say something about what was really afflicting her.

And yet, she squandered it.

"We should head back inside," Kung Lao finally spoke, although he had yet to open his eyes again, let alone pull away from her. "It's late and I know you have things to do tomorrow."

"I can cancel them," Jade assured.

"I know they're important," he replied. "And you're not one to cancel things."

"I could," she insisted.

Kung Lao chuckled before he slowly pulled himself out of her grasp- and while she offered some resistance to the motion, Jade eventually let him go. She watched as he straightened up before he used the wall behind him as leverage to push himself to his feet; although he leaned over and kissed her on the forehead before doing so.

He stretched when he got to his feet before he offered a hand to her, to which she accepted and let him slowly pull her up as well.

They must've made quite the scene out here.

Just two soaked people standing out in front of the palace lawn, seemingly oblivious to the time.

Neither of them were fully dressed- and between the two of them, there still wasn't enough clothing to make one proper outfit.

They made the walk back inside in silence, but with her hand tightly held in his own, Jade didn't feel like words needed to be said.

There would be a mess to be cleaned up tomorrow, and Jade felt sorry for the maids who would be coming in and seeing the scattered puddles of water going throughout the palace and up to the second story.

They made it back to her bedroom, where Jade felt him instinctively head towards the bed- until she tugged him back and pulled him towards the adjoining bathroom instead.

"You were serious about the shower thing?" Kung Lao questioned.

"Yes. That's the bed we sleep in, we're not going to get it dirty- but now I'm worried that you asked me that," Jade replied, hearing him give a quiet laugh in response to her call-out. "Besides, cleanliness aside, a warm shower will help the both of us sleep."

Hopefully that statement would ring true.

[At least for her.]

Once she got the shower up and running, they helped one another out of their clothes, not that there was much to be helped with, before they both stepped underneath the hot water. It was a little hotter than she would've liked it, but she wanted to wash off the water from the pool, and wash off the dried beads of cold sweat from before.

Jade barely wanted to lather herself up, although she had been the one to push it, but she felt his hands volunteer in doing so- and she let herself let him help her out.

Their thinly-veiled attempts at washing off were almost pathetic, but it still got the job done.

She curled her hands against his back as she pulled herself in against him, before she tucked her head into the curve of his shoulder. It was all too easy for her body to fall against his own, to fit perfectly against him like a lost puzzle piece.

The shower was hot enough, but she wanted to feel the heat coming off of him directly.

She focused on the way Kung Lao trailed his fingers along the curve of her back.

A slow drag of fingertips that moved from the dip of her hips up to her shoulder blades and then back down again; a repeating motion that she tracked over and over again- and still never got tired of.

She found herself dozing off against him.

The quiet sound of running water, the stillness grown between them had created its own sanctuary in a short amount of time.

The insomnia that had kept shaking her awake had been tamed for the time being.

It was a struggle to pull away from him, to feel how she had to support herself on now exhausted legs. The throbbing in her head had ceased but now it was clouded by a feeling of fatigue, of impending sleep that was threatening to take her out right then and there. And while Jade liked the idea of Kung Lao having to carry her back to bed, she was certain that he was just as exhausted as she was.

Cutting the water off, the two of them stepped out of the shower- and into the equally steamed bathroom. With how hot the shower had been running, the bathroom itself was filled with residual heat, which meant that they didn't have to attempt a mad dash to the bedroom to maintain their own body heat.

Which meant that they could take the time to dry themselves, and each other off.

Although Jade was careful with what parts of her he touched- although Kung Lao mostly focused on her hair, which she was glad for. He could wring the water out of it quicker than she could, and yet still be careful enough to not tug at the roots. Which probably came from experience with having to do the same for his own hair, which he willingly kept loose for the time being- more than likely just too tired to braid it up again.

And once she was satisfied that they were dried off and wouldn't get the bed sheets wet, she let him guide her back into the bedroom- and back into bed.

The end goal they were both looking forward to.

They usually had their own sides and would meet in the middle, but this time he just slept on her side, settling himself in right behind her.

Finally giving her the opportunity she had been seeking from the start.

* * *

Jade got up by early dawn to get a head start on her tasks, waking up just a few hours after having gone to bed to begin with.

She didn't want to unravel herself from the mess of heavy limbs and tangled sheets, but she wanted to get done what she could before morning; she wanted to have time to come back before Kung Lao woke up.

He didn't stir when she pulled herself out from underneath his arms, or when she brushed her lips against his forehead again.

She needed to run a few errands for Kitana, who was busy with her stay in Earthrealm, and then work with Sindel through a few diplomatic proposals with Outworld- of which, Jade was hoping to avoid a personal visit to the realm. And to Mileena. Not that she bore negativity towards the woman, but it was easy to get caught up in conversation and the last time she was in Outworld, Jade didn't end up leaving until midnight- eroding her whole day.

And this was not a day that she wanted to squander.

Luckily, since she started just before dawn, she was able to get everything done and signed for, as well as get her own shopping done, before noon.

Which allowed her to return home and race back upstairs- only to find that her bed was empty again.

A little disappointing after such a rush to get things done and back home, but Kung Lao was easy to find.

Usually, anyways.

And this time, he was.

Jade walked out onto the back courtyard as a first guess, and found him meditating under the warm afternoon sun. Edenia didn't get as hot as Outworld did, so the afternoon weather was easily manageable even for training- and with no risk of scorching one's skin. Which Kung Lao seemed to enjoy, seeing as he spent most of his time outdoors, regardless of what exactly he was doing.

Which only made it seem more and more plausible for her to get him to stick around- and not just for her sake.

"Don't tell me I missed my favorite part," Jade called out, watching as her voice was enough to pull him out of meditation, but knowing that she made for his favorite kind of interruption.

Kung Lao liked to start his mornings off with meditation and stretching, a given considering his entire Shaolin upbringing. Occasionally he would give in to her requests for a quick spar or two to serve as a warm up, but he usually just stuck with focusing on himself for a few hours. Which worked well considering she usually worked the morning hours which left her afternoons free, which allowed them to overlap once their personal time was done.

Jade liked to join him from time to time, when the opportunity presented itself, and fancied herself with learning a technique or two from how the Shaolin trained.

But more often than not, she just liked to watch.

It was interesting to watch him put himself into these odd poses, where he would continue to surprise her with how flexible he was.

Something Kung Lao said was necessary given his teleportation abilities.

And Jade supposed given how she had seen him teleport in and out of flips, how she had witnessed him coming up out of the ground in mid-throwing pose already, it was indeed a necessity for him to have.

But at the end of the day, and by being honest with herself, she really just liked to watch him pull himself into weird positions while wearing tight-fitted clothing.

He trained in different attire, which was a given, but Jade often wondered if the fitted black pants he usually wore were really a necessity themselves- although considering they were her favorite, she wasn't complaining. If anything, she encouraged their presence to be around more often. She had made a remark about them once before, and he insisted they were Earthrealm fashion- that she would find plenty of people in Earthrealm wearing them for the same reasons.

And considering he was wearing those very same pants with a loose-fitted shirt, she really hoped he hadn't gotten started without her.

"I haven't started yet," Kung Lao assured, aware of her inevitable disappointment if he had. He slowly unraveled himself from his meditative pose, moving his arms behind him so he could lean back on his palms before stretching his legs out in front of him. "You were up early this morning."

"I wanted to have time to get back before you got up," Jade answered, as she made her way across the courtyard to get to him. She had to resist the urge to run to him, but settled on a power walk to keep her nerves from making her jittery. Despite the work she had been focused on all morning, the memories from last night were still fresh in her head; she couldn't shake the knot that was still twisted in the pit of her stomach.

When she did reach him, she moved to stand in front of him and leaned down towards him, taking note of the dark rings that still hung under his eyes. He looked livelier than he did the night before, but she couldn't say that it was by much. Then again, it had been less then ten hours since; she couldn't expect immediate progress, even if she wanted it.

"You're up earlier than usual," she noted.

Her look over didn't go without notice.

Kung Lao offered her a reassuring smile, an improvement still from last night, but it didn't take long for it to falter. "Yeah, I was... thinking about what we were talking about last night," he started.

"And?"

"And... I'm going back to Earthrealm tonight," he answered. "I'm going to talk to Fujin about what's been going on. I can't make any promises that it'll help, but you know, you're right- it's better than me trying to deal with this on my own, especially when I don't know what exactly it is."

Jade moved to crouch down in front of him now, admittedly feeling relieved at the words. "I'm glad," she nodded. "I'm sure between the two of you, you'll find something out- I mean, you can't be the only person who's been possessed by an ancestral spirit, right?"

Another attempt at situational humor.

And this one landed as Kung Lao laughed in response.

"Given, I'm a little disappointed that your visit's being cut early, but I'll gladly trade your absence for you getting better," Jade continued. "Just remember to keep me updated, alright? I don't want to go to Earthrealm if I don't hear anything from you, but I will if I have to- and you are very easy for me to track down."

"Coming from an assassin, I'm not sure if I like that," he remarked. "Now are you going to tell me what's been bothering you?"

So he remembered from last night then.

She shouldn't have been surprised, but she was- especially with everything he was dealing with.

Giving a sigh, Jade moved her hands to knit under her chin. "It's poor timing," she noted.

"We've been through worst," Kung Lao offered. "And like you said, we're not exactly pressed for time."

That statement was still true, but she didn't like that he was using it against her now.

"Okay, I know you're dealing with a lot right now- and admittedly, so am I with getting used to Edenia and getting it back in working order again," Jade started, dragging the answer out as she spoke. "Which, they're not the same, but it's still weird after ten-thousand years to realize that this is where I could've been this whole time- that this is where I should've been. And then there's us, and we're still trying to work through some things-"

"You're stalling," he called out, as he moved to sit forward now and reached out to gently tug one of her hands into his own. "Listen, it's pretty evident that we're both going through a lot right now. And I don't want to put you on the spot, but if I can tell you everything from last night, you can tell me anything- I'm not exactly in a position to judge."

She wasn't either.

But he had a point.

Jade moved to cover his hand with both of her own, squeezing it between them.

"I'm pregnant," she spoke. "So, no pressure, but we both sort of need to pull ourselves together- preferably sometime soon."


End file.
